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Red Dead Redemption Tops UK Charts

Reports of supply shortages indicate sales could have been even higher.

John Marston scared off the hooligans in his UK debut, putting Red Dead Redemption atop the GFK Chart-Track after a three-week run by FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa. And according to the GFK, Rockstar's Western moved enough copies to make it the 11th best selling week ever for a videogame in the UK.

In an interview with CVG, GFK Director Dorian Bloch said Red Dead Redemption had topped the likes of God of War III, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Final Fantasy XIII to become the biggest release of the year.

"It's up there with the biggest triple-A titles of all time -- not bad, considering almost all of those are released in the fourth quarter of the year, which is peak season," Bloch told CVG.

Red Dead Redemption is the first Rockstar/Take-Two game to top the GFK All Formats chart since Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008. It ranks as the ninth best launch for 360 titles and 11th best for PlayStation 3.

And according to numerous reports, the numbers could have been even better, if not for European retailers quickly running out of stock and not being able to resupply. MCV reports that representatives at Blockbuster, Game, and HMV said they all ran low or sold out of PS3 and Xbox 360 copies of the game on launch day.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sits atop the UK charts as the biggest ever launch title, with roughly 1.7 million copies sold.

Sharkey says: I was able to get a good six hours of Red Dead Redemption in this weekend. It's a really beautiful game that feels truly alive. It's far less of an arcade than the GTA titles, and to me, that's a good thing. And I still haven't had a chance to give the various multiplayer modes a shot. Can't wait.